Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to Cutler Bay's Wednesday, October 15th local planning agency meeting. Mr. Clerk, can you call the roll, please?

Council Member Ramirez? Here.

Council Member Lord?

Here.

Council Member Duncan? Here. Vice Mayor Callahan? Here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance

All right. Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk, would you please read item 2A?

An ordinance of the mayor of the town council of the town of Kettler Bay, Florida, creating section 3-45 certified recovery residences of chapter 3 of the town code of ordinances relating to the establishment of review and approval procedures providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for codification, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Can you please read the instructions for public comment?

Please be advised that when joining the meeting, you are automatically muted. Welcome to tonight's meeting. The public was able to make public comments prior to the meeting, either by leaving a voicemail message or sending an email to the town clerk. We did not receive any voicemails or emails on any item for... If you wish to speak tonight, please press star nine and the host will be alerted. Pressing star nine is known as raising your hand. Once you press star nine, you will be placed in a queue to speak and will be called upon by your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Please wait to be called upon. Please state your name and address. If you are a hired consultant or town employee and or if you are engaged in lobbying activities and or representing an organization, please provide that information before speaking. Please be sure to be in a quiet area to avoid unnecessary noise. The time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each speaker during public comments.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. At this time, I'm going to open the floor to public comment. I am going to ask if there's anybody in the chamber or on or in the queue that wishes to speak to please refrain from comments until this item is heard during the regular town council meeting. seeing no one approaching the podium mr clerk anywhere in the queue cue at this time no one in the queue i will close public comment at this time entertain a motion to move item 2a to the regular town council meeting so moved moved by council member duncan need a second a second second by council member lord all in favor all right motion carries item to a move to the regular council meeting at this time is there any additional business Seeing no other business, I will close the local planning agency meeting. All right, good evening again. This is Wednesday, October 15th, and this is our regular town council meeting for October 15th. Mr. Klickrich, call the roll, please.

Council Member Duncan? Here. Council Member Ramirez?

Here.

Lord? Here. Vice Mayor Callahan?

Here. We have a quorum. Thank you. At this time, I'll open up the, we're going to skip the Pledge of Allegiance since we just did that at the planning agency meeting. At this time, I'm going to open the floor for public comments. I do not see anybody approaching the podium. Mr. Clerk, anybody in the queue?

No one in the queue at this time.

Then I will close public comment. Mr. Manager, do we have any changes or additions to the agenda as it was received?

No, Vice Mayor.

Okay, then I will move the agenda to the floor, open up Item 3A, Town Council Announcement Board and Committee Reports. Are there any additions, reports? Nope. All right, then I will move to Item 4A, Town Manager Report.

manager you have before thank you vice mayor members of council uh tonight we have to do every month um miss emma jones from stantec owner's rep to provide the the council and the public uh uh an update on our 16-acre legacy park uh project so emma if you're online and i think we have a presentation as well from the town clerk good evening everyone emma jones with stantec owner's representative for the town of cutler bay for the legacy park project um

You can go ahead and go to the next slide. So as those of you who drive by the site on a regular basis have seen, we are complete with all of the soil exports. So in total, we took out 126,393 tons of contaminated soil, which is 5,393 truckloads, which is amazing. And we have imported 79% of the clean soil, which is approximately 7,196 truckloads. The remaining soil import is going to be done once we have finished some additional testing of the areas of the site where we have trenching for the underground utilities that are going to go into the groundwater area. as well as the irrigation pits. Next slide, please. So here are the latest progress photos. As you can see, it looks like a lovely beach, nice clean soil everywhere, and it's ready for the next phase of the project once we have the go-ahead from DERM. Next slide, please. Quick recap on the project timeline. We have all of the documents are in for permit and are being reviewed. The design team is making updates as we get the comments from not only our town employees and the users of the future buildings, but also the reviewers and inspectors so those are ongoing and we will be finalizing the GMP2 which is for this phase two at the end of this year beginning of next year next slide please so our next steps as I previously mentioned DERM has required some additional testing of the soil and groundwater where we will be putting the proposed underground utilities and that is because we are going deep into the groundwater area below the soils that we have already excavated and brought in new soils and then beginning of next year we'll have the final soil import and compaction for those areas. The phase two which is really the vertical build As I said, the permit documents are submitted and under review, and the final town departmental operational reviews are in process. Little tweaks and tunes here, but really no major changes to the plans. GMP2 is in process, so the bidding and pricing of the design and value engineering is ongoing. We will be holding a job fair slash career fair for those who will be bidding on local trades who will be bidding on the project. The one item that is sort of also going on in the background is some off-site work that we are proposing on Route 212. And we can go ahead to the next slide. It'll be easier for me to sort of explain with the graphic. Perfect. We are proposing slowing the traffic down in front of sort of alongside Route 212 on the side of the park. And we propose that that occur really up ahead of Southwest 92nd. So we're proposing adding one or two roundabouts to slow the traffic from that four lane section, which as many residents know, That's currently or historically been sort of a raceway for people speeding. And the idea is that by maintaining, by taking that four lane down to a two lane around the perimeter of the park, we, A, will gain parking, which is always a benefit, but we will slow down that corridor and prevent sort of that raceway that has been occurring. And then thus, Making the park safer for the residents as well, so happy to answer any questions on that, but that is the completion of my report.

All right, thank you any questions from the Council. I do have a question real quick regarding the importing of the soil. Like you mentioned, right now it looks like a beach. One would normally think that you would see the blacktop soil that would come in. When we get to a point, especially on the back 12 1⁄2 acres, which I'm assuming is going to have a lot of sod and landscaping and stuff, where is the cost for that soil? Is that soil included in the import soil cost that we have now, or is that included or has that been accounted for in the landscape plans?

That is included in the import soils that are coming in. And the reason why we're not bringing those soils in is because we didn't want to, in the process of the additional investigations for the irrigation pits, as well as the stormwater areas and some of the underground utilities, we wanted to make sure that we didn't contaminate any new soils or bring in additional soils that we would have to then dig through. So that will be included in that remainder, which is about over a million dollars of work that's left to be done.

Okay, perfect. Makes perfect sense. Just wanted to make sure it was accounted for. Okay.

Councilmember Ramirez. Can we put that previous slide up with the roundabouts, showing the roundabouts? So, On 212, I see where the Far East roundabout would not be an issue and everything. There is also a right-hand turn where that roundabout is the proposed one right there by Legacy Park, and that actually dumps into a one-lane roundabout. one lane road right on that area. So do we, are we proposing doing one lane east of that, that far east roundabout, or are we just going to try and let it dive down into one leg right before it gets to legacy park? Cause if we did, if we do, we may not need that roundabout there.

I think council member what Emma was attempting to do there that we're trying to show there's going to be a transition there because as you know that street very well there it goes from a four lane to a two lane so one of the things that we know that we're working from with Miami-Dade County staff in fact we have a meeting schedule of the correct from wrong Emma thing on October 24th with all division heads from the county's department there so we can kind of go ahead and plead our case with them So that may not be a traffic circle at the end of the day there on that one, the eastern one that you see there, because they have to work that transition zone. But I could tell you that the one right off a 92nd Street there, I'm sorry, 92nd Avenue, that one there that is has a space there. The one all the way to the west does have the space for traffic circle there. So I think we were just kind of showing that as a graphic there, what we're trying to propose there. But I think eventually the county will want us to rework that area there.

yeah i kind of think i was looking at this as a proposal but i think you know yeah there has to be a transition there i think it kind of already does what we what we're hoping that it's going to do just from that little area. But going east of that far east traffic circle, because that right now is a stop sign. So are we looking to make the entire 212 from 87th Avenue all the way over, kind of reducing that down into one lane in each direction?

I think our goal, the closest that we can get to this is we're trying to stretch our project out with Legacy Park so we can kind of include that traffic circle there. on 92nd Avenue there. But yes, the entire corridor, we're looking at it as part of our traffic calming master plan to see if we could reduce the number of lanes. It's a four lane highway to nowhere. So we understand that and we have to show that to the county with the traffic studies that we have there. And I think looking at either increasing the medians and or maybe a dedicated bike lane there. So if you look at that quarter, that quarter goes all the way down to 85th Avenue as a four lane highway. We're not recommending in front of the school. That's a little that's a busier intersection there east of 87th and between 87th and 85th Avenue. That is full. But this area here between. 92nd Avenue and 87th Avenue, it's really back of homes. And it's back of homes. And you get those emails like I do. I always tell people all the time, my running joke on my staff is wherever you see the tire marks for donuts and the intersection, that's a perfect area for a traffic circle. So that's what we're working on right now. So that's what we're working on now. All right. Thank you for that. Thank you, Emma. Thank you, Emma. Okay. Next vice mayor council members. We have a monthly update on Frangio will be project. We have a tag team of the final way all of virtually and then we'll have after that channel God will talk about the public involvement process. So.

Good evening council members give you a date today. The October 2025 update on frangio road will share. Everybody can see the screen. Jenna will come up shortly to give our public involvement update, but just jumping into our update for the project, we are continuing to hold our biweekly construction projects meetings with the contractor across the tractors, the town, the engineer of record, and ourselves as CEI. Update work zones one and two are complete and fully open to the public. Work zone three across the tractors is wrapping up the work in that area. which goes on Franjo Road from 96th Avenue to Caribbean. This work is anticipated to be completed by the end of this month. They have some minor work still there in duration, kind of earthwork grading and stabilization efforts, finalizing some light pole installations and concrete work, including sidewalks, driveways, and bus stop pads. But again, they're projected to be out of there by the end of the month. Work Zone 4 costs heavily working within that area, which runs along Frangio from Caribbean to Southwest 92nd Avenue. Currently, drainage work is continuing south of 196 Drive. And at this time, Work Zone 4 is expected to be completed by May of 2026. And at all times, the team is focused on keeping the site clean and safe, as well as maintaining the MOT. I'll let Janet come up and give her public information update and then wrap it up.

Okay, I continue to build strong relationships with residents to ensure that they are maintained, informed and supported throughout the project. I've also continued to distribute the MOT flyers. And I guess the highlight of the month was the Spanish Heritage Celebration, which was smaller than our other celebrations, but I had a lot of traction. Whoever came up with the brilliant idea of serving free Cuban coffee, Did me very well because we were side by side and a lot of people came, you know, questions and just curious. So that went very well. That's about it. Smooth September. Any questions?

Council Member Lorde?

I just wanted to comment on your work at the Hispanic Heritage Festival because I did stop at the tent and stood with you guys for a few minutes and listened to how you were addressing the residents. And we did have a lot of residents coming up with questions. It was nice. You guys did a fantastic job. So thank you for that. Thank you so much.

Council Member Duncan. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I live on Frangio. I know. Very famous.

You're digging more right by your house.

Absolutely. I'm experiencing the construction firsthand, and I just want to commend you guys. the Acosta team, um, they, they, despite the, the issue from, from living in the middle of a construction zone, uh, they've been very, very, uh, cognizant of making sure that, that we're able to get them come and go as we need to. I have a son that, that Gulfstream elementary. So there's always drop offs and pickups and they're always, you know, trying to get out of our way, uh, whenever we need to. So I just want to give a big thank you, uh, to the team, um, I know it's a lot of hard work. The weather doesn't help from time to time, especially the last month of rain. Yes. But you guys are doing a great job and I really appreciate it. I'm really excited for the progress to continue.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Thank you. live through the Caribbean Boulevard construction. And Acosta, to echo your comments, was absolutely amazing. They could not have gone out of their way more to accommodate all of the residents. So I know that we have a great team. I do have a comment, and it's because I've received several personally, have received several comments from residents, but also have seen some chatter, obviously, on social media. And that really stems from the word completed, right? So I notice on the information that you presented here and also on the information that you have presented here, to the residents that like phase one and phase two, it says completed. Well, in the minds of the residents, that means it's 100 percent completed. And so now we get the comments, oh, my God, what's the town doing? The manhole covers are sticking up. This is happening. And what I know, they don't know that there's a final lift that needs to be done.

Yes.

But Again, it would be my recommendation if we could slightly change that to maybe substantially completed. Okay. Or completed pending final lift. So that way anybody that is reviewing this information and stuff like that will understand that we're not

that right capable and that's not what the final project is yeah it's funny that you asked because i did get a comment or two at the table regarding the manholes yeah so i did explain that there was a final lift yeah so that's a great idea we'll probably you know do something and to maintain the residents informed that it's final but pending the last lift yeah pending the final that's a great idea yeah that would be great so Thank you.

Anything else?

Anything else?

Thank you very much.

All right. Thanks.

Thank you. Next up, Council Members, are 2026 legislative funding priorities. This year, the legislation process starts in January. We'll have a full presentation from our lobbying team for the legislative priorities, not appropriations, just our priorities. We'll do that in November. But one of the things I wanted to get before the council was our funding appropriations request. And what you see before you is various familiar names and items. For example, the Police Emergency Operations Center were requested $1 million with a $3.5 million match. We have our Legacy Park Brownfield soil remediation. Use her from Emma. We're requesting $1 million for the $3.9 million match. Southwest 207th Street and 85th Avenue, that's a water quality improvement project. We're requesting $1 million for the $3.5 million match. Lakes by the Bay, subsection 7. It's $1 million request with a $4.25 million match. We also have our active adults requesting $100,000 with $100,000 match. Our economic development plan for US1, it's $100,000 request with $100,000 match. And finally, our Bel Air Park Community Center improvements, $300,000 request with a $300,000 match. I wanted to go through the matches because I think it's very important to When we go up to Tallahassee and we have one of our lobbyists there, Jared O'Rourke, who's the lead for the appropriation request. I want to bring this before the council because there's certain deadlines that are going to occur before a November council meeting. And these projects, just for the council and also for the public, these are the ones that... passed the House and passed the Senate, but got vetoed, except the active adult. Last year, we were able to bring home $50,000, which is later on this agenda, that's going to be managed through the Alliance of Agents. But we feel very comfortable, and my conversation, in fact, is early this morning with Senator Calata-Yude and Representative Omar Blanco, that we could go after the same type of request because it's familiar to the committees. We'll have to work the governor's office, you know, as we say, the gentleman with the red pen. Right. Joke as we joke about it. But I think we have a really strong feel for this. And again, it's just basically, you know, we will go up there with our typical book. And if we get this approval, we'll go ahead and proceed with these funding appropriations. And Jared literally worked all night to get this into the hands. We want to make sure that we get this to the staff and the governor's office early on. And so, again, I'm just seeking approval if we want to go ahead and proceed with the same request we did last year. And then we have Jared O'Rourke from Converge and online in case there's any questions.

Any objection?

Councilmember Duncan, your record. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I do have just a quick question, I guess, and maybe it's my naivete on the subject. You know, typically in these requests, you know, we might get lucky to get a few on a really good year. But in listening to the match where we're looking at 3.5 million match, 4 million match, so on and so forth, I'm just curious as to, you know, In the best, most wonderful case scenario, we get everything and nothing gets vetoed. The matching funding, how much of that are we looking at being allocated out of what are our savings accounts, so to speak, and or other fundings? I just want to make sure we're not putting ourselves in a position where all of a sudden we have too much of a good thing and now we're on the hook for a ton of money.

Now you're going deep into my strategy, right? So I'll give you some strategy. And Jared, give me the signal if you want me to stop talking at this point. For example, Vice Mayor and Council Members, the Emergency Operations Center, that match will be our bond. 3.5. We're going to build it anyway. Number one. The second one for Legacy Park Brownfield, we already have that with ARPA and fund savings there. So that's there. The 207th Street and 85th Avenue, you know, our match will be our stormwater fund. for that uh lakes by the bay sub basin will be our storm water fund as well uh the economic development plan uh would be something that we would take that from our our fund balance you know the hundred thousand and the the three hundred thousand dollar match for beller park We could certainly look at, you know, park impact fees at that point. So that's some of the strategy. But I could tell you that when we have, you know, Jonathan Kilman and Jared, you know, walk in the halls, we are not just asking for funds. We're actually, Jared, I mean, if you want to chime in, where we actually say we're actually doubling our match. Jared, if you want to just talk about that, because I know you're the ones walking the halls.

Yeah, no, I think one of the great things is you guys are always in an amazing position whenever, you know. whenever we meet with members, and especially, not just the members that are sponsoring the appropriations, but when we get into the big appropriations chairs and the sub-appropriation chairs, when they start talking about your matches, and your matches are up there well, generally you want to be at a 50-50, and you guys are generally always coming in at a much, much, much higher rate, which is always so much more helpful. You know, at the minimum is they want to see skin in the game from the locals. And Cutler Bay has always positioned themselves to be in a situation where not only, you know, you're asking for a piece of the project. You're not asking for a chunk of the project. You're not asking for a major portion of the project. You're asking for a piece. So you guys are always coming to the table with a more than appropriate ask and with almost always an overwhelming high match. So, yeah, Ralph has always done a great job of positioning you guys when you're coming into the process with a very, very competitive match that the legend nature loves to see.

And if I could add one more thing too, and Jared, we spoke about it when we had our meeting. You'll see in this package that's posted on our agenda for the public review, we now have another new added icon, which is Shovel Ready. Shovel-ready. So it's not like when we talk about the drainage projects that we have identified here, the plans have already been done. In fact, the plans were funded through the ARPA fund. So that's very important because I know when Jonathan and Jared would get up there and they say, well, are these shovel-ready? This is going to be a three-year project. No, no. It's shovel-ready. The permits, when I say shovel-ready, the permits for the Southwest 207th, 85th, and the Lakes by the Bay, the permits are there. We have the permits. They're literally sitting on the shelf. So that's another added competition. As you know, when we go up to Tallahassee, like, well, what's the difference between your project and somebody else? Well, ours is shovel ready.

Right. And what, especially like on your, we'll just take as an example, a road project. What the department doesn't want to ever have to do is if you guys were getting funding, but your project isn't ready, they have to roll those funds over to the next year. And that actually affects their balance sheets because they're rolling funds. They're rolling unspent dollars over because you were awarded funding that they've got a program that isn't even ready. So when you come forward and you say, no, no, no, these projects, the moment we get the funding, we're turning dirt. That's what they want to see. They don't want to see a project. We want it in 24, 25, but we're going to start... construction in 28. So they don't want to have to carry those dollars on their balance sheet for the next couple of years until it's actually going to be spent. So no, I mean, shovel ready is absolutely what every agency is looking for.

And if I may, I'll just I'll quickly just say, you know, my seven years here on the council, that's every time we've gone up to Tallahassee and had these legislative requests, we've always been essentially more than, you know, asking or more than matching what we've been asking for. And then just to reiterate, you know, we're not looking for a handout from Tallahassee. We're looking for a partner. And I think our, you know, Ralph, you and the staff and everybody that works hard to try to get those funds and our team up there in Tallahassee, I think that that helps serve that purpose really well.

And thank you, Council Member Duncan. And I think all of you have been either collectively or individually up there with Tallahassee with us. And that means a lot to the state senators because, you know, we have our lobbyists up there, but it means a lot when we go, you know, as a group or letting them know how important it is for the project. So thank you for that. Council Member Duncan?

Hi, I'm sorry. It's a real quick question. I must have missed it. The active adults match. We're asking for 100. Are we matching it or are we doing more than matching?

We're going to be matching that. We're going to match that as well. Because I mean, there's a lot that we could do with that. And we feel that we're one of the strong applicants, believe it or not, south of Kendall Drive or one of the very few that get awarded that funding. And we're up to, wow, I think the last time I checked with our park staff, almost 16 to 17 events going on a month. So I think just this very morning in this room here, they were doing chair exercises. So it's every month. So we'll find a way to spend that for sure.

No, I know we will. I enjoy watching these programs. You know that. I'd like to go. And they're critical to our aging community. So thank you for that information, Ralph.

And the only bit of information I'd like to add, if I could, is that what we're hearing here in Tallahassee is that the budget process is going to once again move very, very rapidly. We're hearing that there could be budgets coming out as early as week three of session, session beginning January 13th. So as always, and I know we haven't, and I haven't spoken with Ralph yet, to set up a time frame yet, but it is always extremely helpful when you all come up prior to that time frame when they're really getting hard and heavy in the budget. So I would say week one or two would be absolutely, absolutely crucial if you guys were planning on coming up and bringing up your folks for session.

Councilmember Ramirez. First off, just mostly for the residents and stuff, when we go up there, not only do Jared and everybody else do an amazing job and set all the appointments for us, we're welcome into these offices. It's not just we're going in to talk to everybody. We're welcomed into it. And on top of that, what the residents may not know at this particular point is Ralph prepares pamphlets. I mean, he has all the information. We're walking in, handing him a whole packet of information saying, look what we're doing. Look, you know, we're on top of things. You know, we're very financially responsible with all the money that we're putting out there and all our matches and everything else like that. So we're going in there already looking like. you know the best of the best walking in there so thank you to our staff ralph and our staff and my fellow council members um you know when we go up there we we get the job done and jared you guys in your group you're great thank you very much

Thank you, Councilmember. Certainly a team effort that involves everybody. So I think it's very important because it is a very, very competitive nature there. I mean, you see that when we go up there, as soon as we leave the office of a senator or a representative, there's another city waiting in line. But they're lobbyists.

Jared, do me a favor. Next time you're in the governor's office, steal that red pen, please. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Jared. Thank you, Council Members. We'll proceed immediately as soon as, you know, Jared, we got our marching orders. Let's go ahead and submit those things as soon as possible. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thank you, Jared. Yes, sir. Next item that wasn't on the agenda, Vice Mayor and Council Members, is I wanted some good news. We are... We just coordinated the fall restoration cleanup efforts at the near our eight and a half acres there that we work with the Coast Academies and Louisville Cutler Bay. So that's going to be we just published that flyer is going to be Saturday, November the 15th. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. So we usually have really good turnouts in the winter months. So it's going to be a nice cool. But also just to provide you an update of what's going on with the invasive tree removal process there, we actually have a kickoff meeting with all the agencies, Miami County, Durham, uh south florida water management our public works department our parks department our police department as well as our contractor on november the 4th you'll see a lot of uh folks in that intersection they're you know talking through the process so that's november 4th november 15th we'll have the restoration and immediately thereafter november 17th which is that following monday is when the contractor will commence doing the removal of all the trees and basic trees We just filmed a public service announcement with the mayor. We are ordering the project signed there, similar to what we've done in Legacy Park. So residents are aware because when that process starts, I mean, it's almost like 95% of the trees are all invasive there. So you're going to see a lot of land clearing there. So we're trying to get ahead of it as well so that you'll see all that occurring. So kickoff meeting November 4th. Restoration project with volunteers and Coast Academies on November 15th. That following Monday, the contractor mobilized to start the project. So I just want to provide that update to the council.

So that's at Coastal Ridge Preserve Park.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. That completes my report.

uh thank you ralph i have a question um regarding veterans park uh right so the parks and recreational advisory committee has um submitted uh their ideas of of amenities to be in that particular park but i know that you and i uh as part of that processes had discussed about the erection of the monument sign right this is not the This is not the memorial to the military services. This is the monument sign that looks like all of our other, all of other parks did. Do you have an update on that? Sure.

In fact, I'll do two for one. I'll get a copy of that on the minus sign and I'll get it to be just received from our friends from Miami-Dade County, Durham, regarding our sole management plan as well. So we are, we've received the two quotes. I think we're just waiting for one more quote for the, I call them the foam signs, identify our parks there for Veterans Park. So we're going to be placing two of the signs. We're just waiting for one more proposal for that. We could meet our purchasing criteria. Number one, number two, The good news is that through our consultant, Pierre Inc., Rudy Thime, who's our lead on that one there, we were able to negotiate and get our soil management plan approved that unlike Legacy Park, we will only have to scrape almost a third of the park, not the entire park. There is lead contaminant there near Ocala Road. And then there's some arsenic where it used to be the nursery end. But we were able to show with the drilling in the wells and our soil management plan that we will only have to remove uh so much soil somewhere in that 70 000 range again but but we're going to go through that bidding process you'll see that coming up pretty soon so that's the good news so what that means that we're we're going to be placing the signs for the monument signs you requested vice mayor and the parks committee we're going to place them where the soil is not going to get disturbed so we could put those signs up like as soon as we get the third quote That's the good news. And then I know that the parks committee provided their input of what the vision is going to be a nice passive park, you know, recognizing the veterans. And we're going to start in-house, you know, kind of like doing our own little doodling there and bring that back to the council. So that way we feel that we could kind of do that design in-house without bringing in an outside consultant for that. So that's something that we're working on as well.

Mr. Clerk, had you received an email from the chairman of the Parks Committee with that draft? Okay. Can we reach out to the chairman? Because it was approved. And once you receive it, I would like it distributed to the council so they can just see the ideas that came up in the Parks Committee and everybody has kind of an idea of what's being worked on.

Not a problem.

We'll reach out to Chair Began and then I'll share what there was in the council. Fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, and Vice Mayor, if we get that in time, we could actually put that as a nice item on the November 19th council meeting so we could get that ball rolling. Yeah. Once we get that, if we get that from the clerk's office, we'll do some internal, I call it doodling, and we'll bring it to the council. We can have that as a discussion point. We're going the right direction.

Yeah, yeah. Chairman Began is retired now, so sometimes he just needs a poke. He forgets what day it is. Okay. Yeah. Does that complete your report? Yes, Vice Mayor. That completes my report. All right. Thank you very much, Ralph. Town Attorney's Report.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very briefly, we've been asked by the city of Miami if we would entertain joining in their amicus or joining in an amicus brief that some of the other cities are filing in a case called Karenza Apartments versus City of Miami. The case is a Burt J. Harris claim against the city of Miami for removing a... a pilot, essentially a pilot program that they had that allowed buildings in a certain area to put up mural signs. And then after the after that, Program terminated. One of the owners in that area that had not put up a sign yet claimed that removing that designation would constitute a taking. You know, from a legal standpoint, we think that's very, very overbroad. in terms of what the Burt J. Harris Act actually addresses. And so I would certainly say that legally, the city is on sound legal footing, but the issue is being appealed and the outcome would affect the cities. There's no cost to the town of Cutler Bay of signing on to the amicus brief. It just gives it more strength because there are more cities involved. So if you authorize me to do so, I would just simply sign it.

um as and on behalf of the of the town of color though to to be clear there is no cost to the town no no cost to the town any questions or objection from the council no okay okay very good that concludes my report all right thank you uh mr clerk your report no report this evening that's right because there's a panther game here smart man all right uh let's move on to uh item five the consent agenda are there any pools on the consent agenda hearing no pools motion to uh i need a motion to approve so moved moved by council member ramirez second i second second by council member lord all in favor aye aye with no objection consent agenda has passed all right so Right. So at this point, I'm going to reopen the floor for public comment. If there's anybody that wishes to approach the podium. All right. I don't see any movement in the auditorium. Anybody in the queue, Mr. Clerk? There is no one in the queue. No one in the queue. I am closing public comment at this time. We'll move on to item 8.8, ordinance for first reading. Mr. Clerk, would you please read 8.8?

An ordinance of the Mayor and the Town Council of the Town of Cutler Bay, Florida, creating Section 3-45, Certified Recovery Residences, of Chapter 3 of the Town Code of Ordinances, relating to the establishment of review and approval procedures, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for codification, and providing for an effective date.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. We'll open this now for questions.

comments uh mr mr manager thank you vice mayor members council tonight well i want to present uh have julian perez our planning and zoning director provide a a quick uh overview of the orders before you for first reading julian please

Good evening, folks. Good evening, Vice Mayor, members of the council, town manager, town attorney, town clerk, members of the audience. For the record, my name is Julian Perez, and I'm the Planning and Zoning Director. The ordinance before you tonight is a mandate of the state. It was a mandate by the state legislation. It was done through Senate Bill 954. It was also moved into Chapter 2025, 182, and then it amended Section 397.87 of the Florida statute. It is very important that I go through this process because this is kind of the life of how this Senate bill went through the process. Basically what this bill does, it requires local government to formalize and streamline the local government permitting process for applications seeking reasonable accommodation from the land use regulations to open certified recovery residence. The local government, under Senate Bill 954, must adopt the ordinance by January 6th of 2026. That's the reason why we're going through this process. The intent of the certified recovery residence is to provide a safe, substance-free living environment for people recovering from substance use disorder. That is the kind of acronym in the industry while ensuring public safety and neighborhood compatibility. The ordinance must establish procedures for review, approval and oversight of certified recovery residents within its jurisdiction boundaries. This is these procedures are found in the proposed ordinance under Section 343. of the land development regulations. The law provides specific guidelines that must be included in the ordinance to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 954. And that's what before you in the ordinance. Now, there's an exception in this ordinance to this requirement, and the bills does not supersede any current or future declaration of restrictions or of condominium adopted pursuant to Chapter 718 of the Florida Statute. Any cooperative document adopted pursuant to 719 or any declarations or declaration of covenants adopted pursuant to 720. So that's kind of the proposed billed and the amendments. And basically what we're trying to do here is put together an ordinance that follow those requirements. And so if you have any questions at this time, the department is ready to answer any questions regarding the actual bill itself or the ordinance and what we're trying to do.

Ralph, can you briefly provide the explanation that you and I had talked about as to the extent of what Cutler Bay is going to allow with the passing of this ordinance?

Yeah, Vice Mayor, I think what we discussed was that, you know, The these types of homes, there's there's one, I think the nearest one is 15 miles from the town of Color Bay, if I'm not mistaken. And then what we're also looking for is that level four criteria where we'll have to have, you know, those type of homes will have to have a, you know, counselor type of individual there to monitor the the the patients 24 hours a day. So it won't be something that is just, you know, somebody just plops in and go. So it'll be something that they'll have the counselor there, clinical physician, et cetera, et cetera, what they would call it in the statute. But it will be under 24-hour supervision within that home.

I know that this is probably going to put a buzz throughout the community once the understanding of this ordinance hits the streets. I just want to reassure the residents about the Town of Cutler Bay's commitment by law to this ordinance that we... That if we do get an application, that the application would be approved on a level four basis only, right? That would have that supervision that you just outlined.

We don't see a strong... We haven't had any type of inquiries. I think it's something that it's one of those that I think in Julian's summary, it was one of those that that it might have been some jurisdictions throughout the state that were providing a lot of roadblocks to these individual items coming in before a process. So then they went to the state and said, you know what, let's trickle it down. Right. So so that's why why all the cities in the state of Florida have to go through the same process. They're going to be going through the same same process. But we don't see a big surge on this. Like I mentioned, like today, right now, the nearest the nearest recovery center is 15 miles away from Cutler Bay.

Yeah, I wasn't necessarily referring to present or future applications. I just want the residents to have this sense of, you know, of, I don't know, this sense of pride or whatever, or understanding that our commitment to this particular bill is on a level four only, and we're not going to have these, you know, I don't want someone worried about their neighbors all of a sudden turning their house into a halfway house and stuff like that.

Right. And I can tell you, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, rest assured that those applications will be scrutinized, you know, through Julian's department. They're planning his own department to make sure that they are complying with every item in the state statute there. So absolutely, absolutely. They'll get scrutinized.

The key word here is reasonable accommodation. And basically, as the town manager was pointing out, it's probably an ordinance that came about because in certain areas of the state or in a certain community, they were shut down completely. And so what they want, and I think the intent of this legislation is to please treat this application like you treat other applications of similar natures. Like for example, a group home, or an assistant living facility for which we have a number of those already in our community. So it's more of anything is put these folks through the process, but give them a fair opportunity, but follow your rules, right? And that's the reason why we have set a series of criteria and requirements that are consistent with what's in the law. Perfect.

Thank you. Any further discussion? All right, here are no further discussion. I need a motion to approve 8A. So moved. Moved by Council Member Lord. Second? Second. Second by Council Member Ramirez. Mr. Clerk, would you call the roll, please? Council Member Duncan? Yes.

Council Member Ramirez? Yes. Council Member Lord? Yes. Vice Mayor Callahan? Yes. Motion passes.

All right, let's move on to 10A. Mr. Clerk, would you read the ordinance, please?

An ordinance of the mayor and the town council of the town of Cutler Bay, Florida, amending Chapter 18, floodplain management of the town code of ordinances relating to hazardous substances, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for codification, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you very much. I'll open this now for comment, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, Members of Council. This item is here before your second reading. It was advertised in the Miami Herald as per our code and state law. This is an item where we are tweaking and fixing our ordinance to allow materials such as propane, LP gas, tanks in residential areas. We have a lot of folks and we applaud them that would like to have emergency generators for the homes, which is great. And when we did our update to our floodplain ordinance, we wanted to gain as many points as possible. We added this section, but then figured out the result was really that we were kind of hurting that some of the residents that want to have LP gas, not only for LP gas regenerators, but actually some folks that have those big tanks for 250-gallon tanks for their kitchens and laundry, that Florida City Gas hasn't gone down in their neighborhood there. So it was one of those that we said, you know what, let's take another look at it. We looked at it. We gained 20 points when we first enacted it. hindsight, we have a strong Class III rating in our CRS rating. It will not affect our CRS rating. So at that point, we wanted to rescind this prohibition of having, you know, again, I call it more LP tanks, you know, but in the code, it says hazardous materials, right? So this is the second reading for it. It's been advertised, and this item, we support this. It will be staff-generated, and it won't affect our CRS training, but it will allow, we do have four or five applications, believe it or not, that are in the queue right now that are standby, waiting for this order to be adopted so they can go ahead and get their kind of like Generac, you know, generators there in their home. So we certainly like that the council support this and this item's for secondary.

Any comments from the council? Nope. That's all right, Ralph. You just put pressure on Alfredo and myself to come up with more projects. Okay. Just real quickly, I want to commend town staff and this council. It's really refreshing to see that we can recognize our own mistakes and that we can quickly correct them, especially when it affects residents, and that we don't try to hide behind our mistakes and wait until we have a solution. a room full of angry residents, you know, that are beating down the door. So thank you, Ralph, and to staff for being flexible and being able to amend this and accommodate it. And again, yeah, we are taking a hit on our points, but I feel, you know, very strongly with our committee and our public works department that I know they've got all kinds of projects in the closet that they haven't even brought out yet. So we'll make up those points by next meeting.

No pressure, no pressure.

Yeah, Council Member Lord.

Ralph, how many points are we actually losing? I know it's not going to affect our rating. I'm just interested in that.

20. It'll be 20 points for this item here.

I'm one of those residents who've looked into Generac and this came before us and it never even occurred to me that we had the error or the oversight in it. So I'm glad we're able to fix our mistake and own up to it. It was an oversight. So thank you for your hard work with that.

Absolutely. And vice mayor, councilman, this does require a public hearing.

Did you have a note? Yeah, they're fooling me on this one. All right, not seeing that this was needed a public hearing prior, I'll open the floor for public hearing on this item. Anybody wishing to speak? Seeing no one come forward. Anybody in the queue? No one in the queue. All right, then I will close the public hearing on this item. Asking for a motion to approve 10A. So moved. Moved by Council Member Lord. Second? Second. Second by Council Member Ramirez. Would you please call the roll, Mr. Clerk?

Council Member Ramirez? Yes. Council Member Lord? Yes. Council Member Duncan? Yes. Vice Mayor Callahan? Yes.

Motion passes. Motion passes. Thank you very much. I think that brings us to the end of the agenda. I will look at the dais one more time if anybody has any last-minute questions or comments. Nope. Seeing none, thank you very much, everybody, for attending the meeting.